The National Football League (NFL) is full of talented, hardworking, and caring individuals. Plenty of these men do great work for their communities, compete as hard as they can, and are kind and respectful to their teammates, opponents, referees, and fans. Unfortunately, these players don’t get the recognition they deserve. Too often, the bad outshines the good and stories come out about troubling players rather than their compassionate peers. Sadly, this is one of those stories. It’s a story about a football player who is no stranger to controversy: Richie Incognito. Without a doubt, Incognito is a great player. He’s been in the league for 11 years, making the Pro Bowl in four seasons. He plays hard and is as competitive as they come. But he can’t seem to stay out of trouble. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, the Raiders’ new acquisition has just pleaded guilty to two misdemeanor charges stemming from an argument back in August. During the altercation, Incognito punched a hole in the wall, ripped out a security system control box, and was overcome by his anger. The person he was arguing with: his 90-year-old grandmother. The maximum penalty for a misdemeanor charge is up to 1 year in county jail and fines of up to $2,500. Incognito pleaded guilty to charges of criminal damage and disorderly conduct. A domestic violence charge was dismissed as part of his plea agreement, in which he was ordered to take anger management courses, pay a $569 fine, and begin a year of unsupervised probation. There are about 18 million organized meetings every year in the U.S. resulting in $280 billion in spending. Originally, Incognito was slated to make $3.7 million with the Buffalo Bills in 2018. The Raiders signed Incognito to a one-year deal in late May and immediately came under fire with questions and criticisms from media and fans. According to Fox News, Oakland Raiders general manager Mike Mayock defended the signing of Incognito, who missed part of the 2013 NFL season and all of the 2014 season for the harassment of former teammate Jonathan Martin. “At the end of the day, you can’t have all Boy Scouts,” Mayock said. “You have to do your homework on each individual case. We’ve done our homework. We’ve talked to an awful lot of people. We’ve talked to Richie. We’ve told Richie what we expect both on and off the field and we expect him to adhere to that.” According to the CDC, there are approximately 37.2 million injury-related visits to the ER annually. Incognito, after struggling with plenty of physical injuries, was admitted to a psychiatric care center in...

The Trans-Canada Highway is the world’s longest national highway. It spans a staggering 7,821 km (4,860 mi) across the country, linking several provincial highways along its route. While this design is great for traveling humans, it poses quite a threat to Canadian wildlife who get hit trying to cross its path. A group of concerned residents and conservationists are looking to change this statistic by pushing for the construction of wildlife overpasses. “Since they were built, highway wildlife mortality due to collisions has reduced by 80% on average for large mammals generally and 96% for deer and elk,” explained Hilary Young, a member of the Yellowstone to Yukon Conservation Initiative. “So they’re highly successful and ultimately, the savings from collisions pay for the structures themselves.” There are a number of wildlife overpasses in Canada’s many national parks, but the heavy traffic that the Trans-Canada Highway receives makes it a prime target; approximately 90% of all consumer products and foodstuffs are shipped by truck throughout the nation. Cinthia Nemoto, a resident of Canmore who has since joined the fight for wildlife overpasses, witnessed the fallout of a serious crash involving a semi-tractor-trailer and several elk. “We saw the seven elk dead on the highway plus the semi-truck that hit them,” she said. “It shocked us. If it was a regular car, our car, if it was me driving, most likely I wouldn’t be alive right now.” The damage is as costly as it is dangerous; one overpass in Banff reduced the cost in crashes by 90% — over a $100,000 savings — in a single two-mile stretch of road. Scientists believe that once routes are established for these animals (which may take five years or more), it becomes intergenerational knowledge; they’ll know precisely where to go. Knowing which one of four types of tires to use on your vehicle might keep you safe, but it won’t help these animals. Young is hoping to bring the success of the Banff overpasses to this more-trafficked area of Highway 1, about 40 km east from the park gate all the way down to the Kananaskis River; she argued that 15 elk have been killed on the Canmore section of the Trans-Canada Highway in the last two months alone. As the most-used manmade material in the world, concrete has done a lot for humanity; it’s high time it was used to aid and support nature. With the construction of more wildlife overpasses, concrete can be put towards a more productive and beneficial...

SEO and marketing tactics play an integral role in getting a business webpage seen by consumers. Without the right strategies, businesses can’t reach their target audience and increase engagement or sales. But choosing the right marketing efforts can be difficult, especially with SEO methods changing so frequently. So let’s take a look at what a few industry experts have to say about what businesses should be doing regarding SEO and marketing efforts this year. Explore Different Platforms There are numerous platforms businesses can utilize to connect with consumers. And accord to Michael Bellush from HighMark SEO, chatbot technology is going to gain popularity for businesses trying to reach their audience. Bellush says, “Facebook Messenger Marketing is expected to become one of the top marketing channels in the next few years based on chatbot technology and Facebooks extensive membership. Adopting chatbot technology is an important strategy for gaining an advantage over your competitors. Using messenger apps like Facebook Messenger enables you to reach a wider audience of active customers, former customers, and new prospects.” Know the Regulations There are a lot of rules and regulations companies should follow when doing their digital marketing. And Ekaterina Lyapustina from Avocado Digital Media speaks about the importance of achieving CCPA compliance if possible. Lyapustina explains, “California’s recent data privacy law CCPA is the latest in an alphabet soup of legislation governing companies’ use of consumer data. Before the requirements go into effect in 2020, marketers will need to know what it is, how it applies to them, what they need to do to comply, and how it might change their jobs. As industry leaders and government officials continue to make strides toward privacy requirements, 2019 is all about marketers doing their own research about CCPA and GDPR in order to comprehend their data infrastructure and thoroughly prepare themselves for these new regulations which are likely to shake up their existing strategies.” Artificial Intelligence Is Important With more and more consumers having artificial intelligence tools in their homes and vehicles, optimizing for AI is becoming increasingly important. According to Greg Ventresca from VentraLocal, “The more informative we build our websites, the easier it is for Googles A.I. to harvest and “reuse” our content in snippets that answer quick questions and divert our visitors. The more answers extracted, the more “above the fold” real estate that the answers consume. In 2015, top performing websites (seo) were displayed just 590 pixels from top of screen (desktop). In 2019, on average, top performing websites (seo) display are often more that 1000 pixels from top of screen. On mobile, the story is the same. It is smart for...

In today’s society, more automakers are focusing on eco-friendly vehicle options, like electric vehicles (EV). From exploring alternative fuels to using sustainable materials, like stainless steel pipes, which can last over 100 years, automakers are becoming increasingly innovative. And now, an unlikely company has entered the electronic vehicle market: Dyson has recently released plans for their electric car. Dyson, which is well known for its household appliances, has released its patent designs for a new, unusual-looking electric car. The company’s EV features uncommon proportions and other elements that make it like no other electric vehicle. The car is designed to actually be able to be driven off-road if desired. While the details aren’t fully released, Sir James Dyson, owner of the company, did say that the patents were “deliberately light on specifics”. There are laws in place to protect the ideas of companies and people, like the 2016 Defend Trade Secrets Act. And when Dyson’s patents for the electric car were filed over a year ago, the company decided they didn’t want to release all of the details, but rather just show a few of the inventive measures they’re taking with the car. Dyson’s electric car features a long wheel base, a three-row interior with seats that recline, and a much more aerodynamic design than other EVs. The patents also show that the company is considering the vehicle to have larger wheels, which will help improve efficiency. The lower center of gravity will increase the amount of control drivers have over the vehicle. Discussing the unique design of the vehicle, Dyson told employees, “Signiﬁcantly, many of our competitors base their electric vehicles on existing formats and adapt them for electric propulsion systems. Such an approach is cost eﬀective, however, it tends to miss opportunities for mass-reduction and aerodynamic improvements which would improve the energy eﬃciency of the vehicle. Another approach has been to focus on smaller vehicles, as this generally keeps the mass of the vehicle low which can extend driving range. However, the size and ride comfort of such vehicles tends to limit their attractiveness and utility.” The UK development project amounts to about $2.7 billion and cars are expected to be sold as early as 2021. The vehicles would be in the same price range as a Tesla, as they will be considered premium vehicles. At first, the cars will be released in a limited number of countries. With people driving passenger cars and trucks over 10,000 miles every year, it’s time to really focus on making driving an eco-friendly act. And with the increased number of electric vehicles available, more and more people can focus on...

The U.S. employs a significant number of field workers. From public safety employees to the individuals in the military that work overseas, they need technology that can keep up with their needs and their environment. These devices, whether they’re laptops of tablets, need to pass strict standards such as the MIL-STD-810 (Environmental Engineering Considerations and Laboratory Tests) in order to ensure their functionality in the field. Until now, that is; Ricoh, USA Inc. has recently made it onto IDG’s CIO 100 list in 2019 for their hands-free development. It’s called Smart Hands, and it offers field technicians the ability to connect directly and immediately with cloud-hosted knowledge repositories and subject matter experts (SMEs); as a result, both first-time fix rates and customer satisfaction are improved. “Smart Hands is a natural evolution of Ricoh’s strong focus on customer outcomes, including uptime, productivity and service satisfaction,” said Kris Rao, Vice President and Head of Information Technology, Ricoh USA, Inc. “We help customers improve employee productivity, grow their business effectiveness and efficiency, and better serve their own customers. [Smart Hands] empowers Ricoh’s technical services to ‘practice what they preach,’ by creating a shared knowledge platform that enables immediate access to the information required to solve complex customer issues.” IDG’s CIO 100 is a place for greatness to come together. The awards celebrate 100 organizations and the teams within them that are striving to use IT in innovative ways. “Across the business landscape, companies everywhere recognize the vital role that an innovative, value-driven approach to information technology plays in their success,” said Maryfran Johnson, Executive Director, CIO Programs, IDG. “This year’s CIO 100 winning companies are inspiring examples of how IT leadership, business collaboration and digital transformation will drive future growth.” Ricoh’s development certainly fits the bill. Smart Hands enables the company’s 4,500 field techs to have instant, hands-free contact with its resources — including live support. Businesses the world over (especially those with large employee bases) can benefit from the immediate access Smart Hands provides to its distant technicians. At the end of the day, customers are satisfied, and business is...